How can I add the trigger issue as my parent for issues created from automation?

[Andy Ades]

I'm using a next-gen project with Automation for Jira (cloud). I have a rule setup for whenever an epic is created to trigger creation of new issues (not sub-tasks) with certain fields set. I'm trying to set the trigger issue as the Epic of the newly created issues, but since "parent" isn't available until an Epic is linked to an issue, I'm unable to figure out how to properly do this. Is this possible in next-gen?

My advanced code block is:

{
"fields": {
"parent": "{{triggerIssue.key}}"
}
}

The error I get in the audit logs is:

Error creating issue: data was not an object (parent)

[Petter Gonçalves · Accepted solution]

Hello @Andy Ades

Sorry to hear you are facing this problem.

Indeed, Next-gen projects use a different mechanism that does not include the "Epic link" field to link Epics to issues, so the Automation rules are not able to recognize them yet.

Basically, this happens due to the fact that Next-gen projects use single entities for each project scope (Epics, status, Sprints, etc), so different fields and link types were created to link Next-gen Epics.

We have the following feature request to allow the Epic link to be recognized in Automation rules:

Setting epic link / parent link in next gen projects is broken in cloud

Unfortunately, I'm afraid we don't have a way to make it work with Next-gen projects at this moment, so I recommend you keep an eye on the feature request and move your issues to a Classic project in case you really need this functionality.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Andy Ades]

@Petter Gonçalves - appreciate the response. There are enough benefits for us to keep the project as next-gen for now. We'll manually update the parent link once the issues are created. We'll keep an eye on the feature request too. Thanks!

[Petter Gonçalves]

You are welcome @Andy Ades

Have a nice weekend and let us know in case you have any other questions.

[Charles Amschel]

@Andy Ades If you're still looking for a solution, a user in a comment on another topic posted a solution that's pretty simple. That topic is called "Setting next-gen Epic parent in jira automation". Here's a link.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Team-managed-projects-questions/Setting-next-gen-Epic-parent-in-jira-automation/qaq-p/1263233#U1731732

The useful comment is dated Mar02, 2021.

[jeroen.wilmes]

Is there any new view on this? 
"so I recommend you keep an eye on the feature request and move your issues to a Classic project in case you really need this functionality." is not really what I'm looking for.

The solution mentioned by Charles is dealing with Epic - task. I'm looking for "initiative" - Epic.  THere fore I need to fill the Parent link field (customfield from Advance Roadmaps) with the value of the key of the trigger issue.